Space for Development: US-Indian Space Relations 1955 -1976
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Space for Development: US-Indian Space Relations 1955 -1976 A Thesis Presented to The Academic Faculty by Doraisamy Ashok Maharaj In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of History Technology and Society Georgia Institute of Technology December 2011 Copyright 2011 by Doraisamy Ashok Maharaj Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Tables iii List of Figures iv List of Abbreviations vi Summary vii Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter II: India Enters the Space Age: From Optical Tracking of Satellites to Sounding and Lighting the Tropical Space…….................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter III: The Political and Technological Trajectory of India’s First Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV): Transnational Networks and Indigenous Efforts………………… 91 Chapter IV: Polyvalent Meanings of Satellite Broadcast in Rural India: NASA and the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)…………………………… 154 Concluding Thoughts……………………………………………………………… 203 Epilog: Transnational Networks and Knowledge Flow..…………………………….210 List of Sources …………………………………………………… …………………214 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………216 Acknowledgements John Krige has been a tremendous support and encouragement since I started the graduate program at Georgia Tech. His tutelage and mentoring has enabled me to grow both intellectually and personally. My debt to him is beyond words. I would like to thank my committee members: Steven W. Usselman, Hanchao Lu, Kenneth Knoespel, and Asif Siddiqi. LaDonna Bowen, for meticulously handling all of my paperwork at Georgia Tech and for providing all the help during my graduate days. My fellow grads and cronies -- Prakash Kumar, Angelina Long, Chris McGahey, Nathan Moon, Jahnavi Phalkey and Tim Stoneman. Thanks for all your encouragements over the years. I would like to thank Martin Collins, Jim David, David Devorkin, Tom Lassman, Roger Launius, Alan Needell, Michael Neufeld, Margaret Weitekamp, Hunter Collins – I got to know this vibrant community at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), Smithsonian Institution, during my stint as the Guggenheim Fellow. Some read parts of my chapters and offered expert comments. Special thanks to Robert Youman family, May Lou Money, Walt Money and Delia Gonzales, for opening their homes to me in Washington D.C. and for sharing their love and care. In Trivandrum, I would like to thank Manoranjan Rao and his wife for their hospitality during my field trips. Rao freely shared his own collections of materials on the Indian space program and internal publications of ISRO. He also offered valuable comments and suggestions on my draft chapters. Gopal Raj offered excellent comments on my chapter on launch vehicles and promptly answered many of my queries and questions regarding my topic. In Atlanta, I would like to thank Asfaw and family, Paul and Sharon Gardner, Virginia Strom, Shafi and Adria, Elaine and Al Lacour, Rebecca and Marshall Johnson, Dianne Butler, to my home group fellowship members, Tom and Anna Spainhour, and Lori and Jim. To Appa, Amma, Kannan, Rajesh, Anand, Brinda, and Kezia. Finally to my wife Dollina and little Nathan. Only I know the sacrifices she made in her life to see me through. As a token of appreciation and love I dedicate this dissertation to her. ii List of Tables Table 1: Geographical Distribution of Indian Stations that participated in IGY 35 Table 2: Sounding Rocket Launches from TERLS (1963-1970) 90 Table 3: Options for launching a satellite for India 101 Table 4: Evolution of the India’s rocket program 151 Table 5: SLV-3 Vehicle Stages 152 Table 6: SLV -3 Configuration 153 Table 7: Education and Training in the U.S. 212 iii List of Figures Figure 1. Sites of Baker Nunn Camera Stations 39 Figure 2. Baker Nunn Camera 46 Figure 3. Baker Nunn Camera North side 47 Figure 4. Baker-Nunn Camera, Section North to South 48 Figure 5. Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) 68 Figure 6. NASA Wallops Station – INCOSPAR Trainees, June 7, 1963 69 Figure 7. November 5, 1963: Indian and Pakistan nationals loading Judi-Dart into launcher. 71 Figure 8. Geographical location of camera sites and launch sites 72 Figure 9. Photograph of sodium vapor cloud taken 500 seconds after the rocket launching, Palayamkottai, 21 November 1963 75 Figure 10. The Indian launch crew mates the Apache rocket to the Nike booster 77 Figure 11. Arnold Frutkin seated behind Indira Gandhi 80 Figure 12. Exploded view of SLV-3 129 Figure 13. RH 560 on a launch pad 134 Figure: 14. SLV-3 Work Centers 136 Figure: 15. Utilization of ISRO and external establishment for SLV development 137 Figure 16. Filament Winding Machine for the fourth stage of SLV-3. 140 Figure 17. Satish Dhawan (third from right) behind Indira Gandhi. 146 Figure 18. Artist conception of direct broadcast instructional television 171 Figure 19. Krishi Darshan 177 Figure 20. ATS-6 support network 180 iv Figure 21. ATS 6 Satellite before launch 182 Figure 22. Earth Stations for SITE 184 Figure 23. Left – Chicken mesh antenna. Right – People watching SITE program 188 Figure 24. Complete DRS system 189 Figure 25. ATS-6 coverage in India 190 Figure 26. SITE in action 196 Figure 27. SITE in a typical village 197 Figure 28. International networks and knowledge flows 211 v List of Abbreviations AIR – All India Radio ARIES - Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences ATS - Application Technology Satellite COSPAR – United Nations Committee on Space Research CSAGI - Comite Special de l’Anne Geophysique Internaitonale DAE - Department of Atomic Energy DRDL Defense Research Development Laboratory DRDO – Defense Research Development Organization ESCES - Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station GSFC – Goddard Space Flight Center HCO – Harvard College Observatory IASY - International Years of the Active Sun ICSU - International Council of Scientific Unions IGMDP – Integrated Guided Missile Development Program IGY – International Geophysical Year IIOE – International Indian Ocean Expedition INCOSPAR – Indian Committee on Space Research IQSY – International Year of the Quiet Sun IRBM – Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile ISRO – Indian Space Research Organization ITU - International Telecommunication Union NAS – National Academy of Sciences NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASDA – National Space Development Agency OMC – Office of Munitions Control PRL – Physical Research Laboratory SAO – Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory SCOUT – Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test System SSTC – Space Science Technology Center STEX – Static Test Evaluation Complex TAG – Technical Advisory Group TERLS – Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station TIFR – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research UNCOPOUS - UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space UNDP – United Nations Development Program UPSO – Uttar Pradesh State Observatory VSSC – Vikram Sarabhai Space Center vi Summary Through four case studies of technological systems – optical tracking of satellites, sounding rockets, instructional television through a geosynchronous satellite, and a launch vehicle--I explore the origins and development of the Indian space program from 1955 through 1976, a period critical in shaping the program’s identity and its relationship to the state. Institutionalized, and constructed in different geographic regions of India, these systems were embedded in the broader political, economic, and social life of the country and served as nodes around which existing and new scientific and technological communities were formed. These organic, highly networked communities in turn negotiated and developed a space program to meet the social and strategic demands of a new modernizing nation state. That modernizing program was, in turn, embedded in a broader set of scientific, technological and political relationships with industrialized countries, above all the United States. The United States’ cooperation with India began with the establishment of tracking stations for plotting the orbits of artificial satellites. Cognizant of the contributions made by Indian scientists in the field of astronomy and meteorology, a scientific tradition that stretched back several decades, the officials and the scientific community at NASA, along with their Indian counterparts outlined a cooperative program that focused on the mutual exploration of the tropical space for scientific data. This initial collaboration gradually expanded and more advanced space application projects brought the two democratic countries, in spite of some misgivings, closer together in the common cause of using space sciences and technologies for developing India. In the process India and the United States ended up coproducing a space program that responded to the ambitions of the postcolonial scientific and political elite of India. The global Cold War and the ambiguities, desires and tensions of a postcolonial nation-state vying for leadership among the newly decolonized states in the Afro-Asian region are critical for understanding the origins and vii the trajectory of India’s space program. Without this political context and the construction of a transnational web of relationships, it is highly unlikely that the Indian scientific and technological elite, along with their industrial and political partners, would have succeeded in putting India on the space map of the world. viii Chapter I: Introduction Few today contest the significance